


Thank You

by Deathbyhook



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 16:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12751965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deathbyhook/pseuds/Deathbyhook
Summary: Sometimes you just gotta say it. Especially when she needs to hear it.





	Thank You

“Reylo prompt: Kylo thanking Rey for everything she’s done for him when she’s hopeless. Super emotional, but sweet. He finally takes the chance and kisses her to seal the deal“

“Kriff!” She slumped against the panel in one of the lower compartments of the Falcon. 

Ben raised his brows. Finn had recruited him to handle Rey. She’d been in a ripe mood all day, and Ben could at least stop any projectiles she might have thrown, by freezing them mid air.

“Been that rough, huh kid?”

“Ren?!” There was crashing that sounded an awful like she had skidded a joint or two across some grated metal. After a quick groan, she shot up to look at him with squinted eyes. A hand rubbed the top of her head.

“Finn sent you, didn’t he?” faint hints of venom laced her words.

“No,” he replied, tucking his hands into his pockets, “should he have?”

“No,” she said tersely. And with sturdy hands and strong arms, she hoisted her up from the compartment. She collected the tools and the kit, and started to retreat to wherever he wasn’t standing. He tried not to take it personal. Even if she still called him Ren.

“Rey,” he pleaded. Not for his sake. But he could feel it. Her heartbreak. She’d closed him out years ago, in their bond, but the Force still made him an apt observer of atmospheric emotions.

“What do you want me to say?” She huffed, dropped the tools, and put her hands on cocked hips.

“I don’t want you to say anything,” he was going to get frustrated, he knew, but right now she needed him to keep a level head. No matter how much she was baiting him, “and I’m not going to argue.”

“Then what do you want?” She exclaimed. Rey even stomped her foot for good measure.

Gods she was infuriating. But dammit if she wasn’t beautiful. 

“I’m sorry they didn’t find her,” and that did it. The air was tight with her coiled apprehension, even pinched his pores, but with his words the floodgates opened. And with an overwhelmed sigh, all her emotions washed over him in the Force. And she cried.

He goes to scoop her up and she folds over on herself. Hugging her middle. But he stops just short of her, spotting her if she were to fall. She’s hadn’t let him hold her yet. In fact she actively avoided it. And there have been times when he’d die if it brought her comfort.

After everything with Snoke, Rey obsessed over the old bag’s words. That her mother was still alive. That her name was Iden. It wasn’t until a year after that they discovered Kylo Ren had interrogated a man named Del whose lover was Iden herself, and they’d had a child. Iden had yet to be found. 

Now, five years later no hope. At least that’s all Rey can feel right now. And it was breaking him inside.

“Ren,” she choked, her eyes were still closed and she grasped the air in front of her, thankfully he was close enough she could find purchase on his sleeve, “hold me, please.”

That was all he needed. The arm her hand was gripping slid up along and under hers until it wrapped under her pit. He used it to pull her closer, softly. So as not to scare her off. Her forehead finally touched the hard spot on his chest, and it felt like a hammer hitting a stone and it reverberated within him. His heart clinched. One of her arms was still held tight to her midsection, and his other hand wedged between them to coax it out.

With her arm freed from the space between them, her feet shuffled forward and her chest fell upon his abdomen. A sob wracked her body at the sensation of being so close. And it took everything in himself to keep from collapsing from relief as well. 

He let her cry for some time. His arms tightened and loosened as her tears ebbed and flowed. He whispered sweet endearments to her in Shyriiwook. And she’d chuckle in self-deprecation. 

“I’m done looking,” she ground her forehead against his breastbone. The admission was too much. She sniffed aggressively.

He held tighter, “Rey, there’s something I need to say.”

“Don’t,” he could practically feel her heart jump out of her chest, and she tried to pull away, but he’d be damned if couldn’t say it. But he’ll pretend he hadn’t noticed the tempo rise to save at least a little of her pride.

“No- you need to here this,” he looked down to her face. It was streaked with drying tears and snot. He swallows. Her beauty too much to handle, but everything enough to give him courage. Her combative face softens and she nodded her consent.

“I never thanked you,” he rested a cheek on the crown of her head as she ducked from chagrin.

“You don’t need to.”

“I do... I’m not one for words. I- I don’t know how to say this properly, but I know I have to say it.”

“Rey, you gave me a second chance. You. My mom had hope. My uncle might have, had he tried. But you, you did it. You brought me out of my stupor. You knocked me upside the head with a staff- literally- and made me realize how blind I was. You shed light on my dark illusions. And when I made the choice to leave the first order, you kept me steady. Showed me a semblance of forgiveness and purpose. And I- I will forever be grateful. I’m sorry, too. For everything. There are some things I’ll never be able to forgive myself for. Things- people- that will forever haunt me. But you make me believe that someday I’ll actually deserve this second chance. Someday I’ll be the Ben my  
mother believed in, and whom my father died for.”

She pulled away then. Fresh streams glistened on her cheeks.

“You don’t think you deserve forgiveness?”

“Shh,” he wiped at the tears, “this isn’t about me, I just needed you to understand the importance you have in at least my life. I lov-“

He swallows hard. So does she. Both their eyes with wide with shock. He’s never hidden his feelings for her, but he’s always been careful not to say it. She’d known for some time. 

The warmth and heat he’d feel when they were close. The gentle reassurance when she was training and felt inadequate. The frustration when she’d ignore him. The stuttered elation when they’d accidentally bump into each other. His laugh that he only allowed her to hear. The redness that would splash the tips of his ears, and stain his neck, when she’d catch him staring. And then- there were the dreams...

She licked her lips. 

He blinked. And then dove forward. His lips crashed upon hers. The taste of salt mingled with the sweetness of their tongues. Breath hot and labored.

Somehow she had climbed upon him, and his hands found themselves anchored under her bottom. And the weight of them together had them stumbling back to hit the wall behind him.

“Hnnng,” Rey moaned as the collision bumped her groin upon the sturdiness of the muscle under his tunic. His vest swayed upon her thighs; deliciously sensitive and ticklish. She smiles with a stifled giggle. 

“Mmmm,” he responded. And then the kiss turned soft. The heat dimmed to a simmer. The passion no less, but gentler. Until they part and he rested his forehead upon a hers. Still cradled in his seemingly inexhaustible arms. 

“I think I should thank you,” she drew away to look him in the eye, and traced his scar, “Ben.”

The name is a benediction. Absolution. Gratitude, and love. She means it. And it’s everything he’d die for, but thankfully she’d never ask.


End file.
